Jim Rickards today on the Keiser Report regarding Currency Wars which he literally wrote the book on-

http://maxkeiser.com/2012/04/05/kr271-keiser-report-angel-dust-for-ponzi-addicts/

If anyone is in any doubt how bad things are start reading zerohedge.org it's the Slashdot of finance.

A few things that have helped me-

1. Read something short but interesting, for example the book "What is your dangerous idea?" has ideas in a few short pages that will make you start thinking.

2. Watch something from HOPE, TED, a short Google Talk etc

3. Search Sourceforge for a project that does something similar to the code you are working on, look at the code and think how it is similar and different from what you are working on.